Alright, many of you have probably looked at my last post and gone 'What the flaming hell...?!'. Yes, a Destroyer already. You think I'm either insane or illegitimate.
Team Tolkien: 66 points
Destroyer Galadriel: Level 27 Fire/Lightning sorc (Act V, 30 points)
Arwen: Level 23 Shadow/Martial arts Assy (Act IV, 18 points)
Boromir: Level 23 Warcry/Combat skills Barb (Act IV, 18 points)
Answer = insane.
Well, sort of. Tuesday was my day off University, and I got an enormous amount of D2ing done - a total of 13 hours! I wanted the honors of 1st to Destroyer, so I left my sorceress where she was (in the middle of Act II) and proceeded with the barbarian and assassin. They would each kill Meph, taking the portal to Act IV, and then I would nail four consecutive acts with the sorceress over the following 32 hours.
On tuesday, both characters cleared acts II and III. Mephisto proved to be no real drama. Duriel proved a slight problem for the barb, who could tank but provided no real damage. Sadly, no uniques of note, but there's plenty of time for that in Nightmare. Late Tuesday night, my sorceress also cleared Duriel with Blaze and Fireball, and I crafted a leaf staff and Stealth armour to help her out.
Psycho is quite familiar with my laptop. I carry it everywhere. I use it at Uni, at Psycho's house, at home, at the burger shop in the Broadway Shopping Centre. On the train to and from Sydney - a 1 hour train trip. My laptop doesn't like running D2 without direct power, as it's forced to run on batteries and use a lower processor speed, but I've found a SC Arreat's Face and created a Patriarch on the train before. My fellow passengers thought it a bit strange when I started pumping my fists into the air when Arreat's Face dropped, but hey, what would they know about the joys of D2 unique finding?
Well, the laptop cleared Act III on my sorceress. Actually...I didn't get much done except teleport to every waypoint in Act III and find the important areas of the map, like the stairs to Sewers II. Dangerous, but the low processor speed actually helped. I had about a second to plan each teleport, and about three to decide whether or not to save & exit. Plenty of time to react.
At lunchtime in Uni, I plugged straight back in. My Uni friends are all either Bnet gimps or C-strikers, but they could appreciate what I was doing, and a small crowd grew around my seat at the cafeteria. I went back through Act III, completing quests and finding body parts, and nuked Meph for the grande finale before guzzling my cappacino and ham sandwich and running off to a Distributed Programming lecture.
I was far too tired to do anything on the trainride home, but once home I told my parents I had an exam tomorrow, locked myself in my room and booted D2 for what will be the final time this week. Month. Possibly year...
Act IV was frustrating as hell is supposed to be, because most monsters have some kind of inherant resistance to elemental damage. The pit lords, with their improved life and fire resistance, were the bane of my existance. Abyss Knights threatened instant death a few times, but proved no match for my now powered-up processor and coke-enhanced reflexes.
Chaos sanctuary was particularly difficult. The Grand Visier was, of course, immune to fire and lightning resistant. Damn, I'm going to have fun in Hell with him. Diablo died at 8pm to meteor.
Act IV was expensive, however. I began that day's play with a total of 80000 gold muled across from characters. I was down to 52000 by the time Diablo died, and I'd yet to face Act V.
A quick dinner, and it was on to the final leg of my marathon. I dumped my useless Act II merc for a barbarian at the earliest oppertunity, arming him with a rare basterd sword Meph had dropped. I got lucky with the waypoints, particularly with the Ancients Way...thank God! I hadn't found the Frozen Tundra WP, as I just teleported through (with the aid of 3 mana potions). I found the waypoint early...and was almost immedietly after forced to save & exit to moon lords. Damn, they hit hard! 3 hits diced my merc into pizza salami, and it doesn't take long for a frenzied Moon Lord to get in 3 hits. I was forced to save and exit 3 more times in the Ancient's Way alone.
The Ancients themselves proved frustrating. My merc showed early promise in tanking, but eventually died...and I realised I'd used most of my healing potions on him and half my mana potions! Whoops. Talic and Madawc dropped to Meteor, and I sat back for what looked to be a long haul with Korlic.
Damn me. His health bar barely shook after I dropped five meteors on his head. I wasted most of the rest of my mana potions, before I switched to Nova just to see what would happen. Sure enough...Korlic had been fire-resistant all this time.
What is it with that? Is it an inherant bonus, or do the Ancients spawn with random equipment?
Anyway, Korlic eventually fell to Nova, and I was free to run to Baal.
BAAL
Baal's minions dropped, predictably, like lead balloons. Except Lister. Damn that horny brown oversized toad. My merc didn't stand a chance. I eventually stranded him down near the entrance.
I hate blood mana. There, I've said it. Damn, Baal kicks caster arse. If he cast Iron Maiden, I would say 'fair enough', but no. You barbs and palys don't have to worry your little heads about Baal. Only us sorcs. Damn you all.
But I was saved, again, by pure chance. My mana bar was only 11 points ahead of my health. I dropped a +9 to energy rare helmet, and I was back in business, with only that worthless -defence curse...I think my sorc only had 110 defence to begin with.
At 11 pm, Baal finally died, summoning a clone right in my face which flashed blue and disappeared an instant later as my level 3 rock hurtled down through the roof of the Worldstone Keep and gave Baal a third eyesocket. Goldcount = 37000. Item count = nothing worth mentioning...Isenhart's Lightbrand, anyone? Rune count = two Amns, one in Ancient's Way, one in WS3. I also found a 2 socket Quhab (spelling?).
Anyway, at level 27 Galadiel is officially the youngest Destroyer I've ever made. I didn't even beat it with that Necro who killed Diablo with a level 1 Bone Spear. He finished Act V on level 32, I believe. Galadriel was level 22 after killing Duriel, level 23 after Meph, level 24 after Diablo, level 26 at the Ancients and level 27 at Baal. And damn, was that scary.
Good luck for the rest of you, and farewell for about a month as I take a vacation from D2.
The idea is that HC untwinked is difficult. Muling the cube or other quest artifacts (e.g. Kalim's Will) doesn't seem in the spirit of these events.